[Year 12 IT Apps] editing notes in polyphonic audio

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

This audio-editing program appears to be making waves ..

A video is here: http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna

[Flash Video FLV (35 MB), Quicktime Movie Large (127 MB) Small (30 MB),
Windows Media Large (63 MB) Small (31 MB), iPod MP4 (23 MB)]

'Direct Note Access is a technology that makes the impossible possible:
for the first time in audio recording history you can identify and edit
individual notes within polyphonic audio material. The unique access that
Melodyne affords to pitch, timing, note lengths and other parameters of
melodic notes will now also be afforded to individual notes within chords'

Key facts
 
 Access individual notes in chords and polyphonic audio: see them, grab
 them, edit them  
 
 Audio, not MIDI! While editing single chord notes is common for MIDI, it
 is a world premiere for audio recordings. Patent pending.  

 Examples of use: tune a guitar after recording, correct harmony vocals
 that are out of tune, or fix their timing, turn major chords to minor (and
 vice versa), switch tone scales, mute single notes, remix volume levels,
 etc. – all after the performance is already taped!  

 All Melodyne tools available: pitch shifting, time stretching, formats,
 amplitude – you name it ...  

-- www.nytimes.com say ..

Mr. Neubäcker’s program received a round of appreciative applause when it 
was demonstrated for professionals at a trade show in Frankfurt this 
spring. 

People outside the world of recorded music, however, may not immediately 
grasp its ingenuity, said Julius O. Smith III, a professor of music and 
associate professor of electrical engineering at the Center for Computer 
Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford. 

“It’s difficult to separate simultaneous sounds in a recording,” he 
said. “Since our brains do this all the time, it can be hard to appreciate 
the magnitude of the task” when it is done by computer.

The difficulty is inherent in the sounds themselves. Notes have a basic 
tone, or fundamental, but they can also have many overtones that intermix 
in polyphonic music. 

Mr. Neubäcker’s program is designed to tease out this musical mix of 
simultaneous sound and sort it into separate sonic envelopes that can then 
be manipulated.

Professor Smith said that the demonstration of the program he saw on the 
Internet “looked superb, truly groundbreaking.” ..

--
Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia